Strangers Like Me
by MoonVeil
Summary: We were running from Dante, from the person my sister was becoming, from the truth that ate at us with every step. As we ran we followed him—Edward Elric. Our last chance. Our only hope for survival.
1. Prologue

**Strangers L****ike Me**

[Prologue]

Disclaimer: I make no claims to ownership of Fullmetal Alchemist, nor am I making any profits from the writing of this fanfiction.

* * *

In the end, humans are merely a composite of elements; water, minerals—bones and flesh. When these elements are broken down, we're no longer human. Some like to call this death. If death is the breaking down of elements, the reverse should be true. Putting these elements together and fashioning them whole with alchemy _should_ create human life. But, as all things go, it never quite works like that.

In all cases, human transmutation has failed. Or has it? In the end, it _does_ create life. Homunculi—beings superior, and yet also, less than humans—are fashioned by this act of alchemy. Twisted beings created from a humans weakness and forced to live without hope of ever joining the humans they so long to.

Only one transmutation has ever been successful in creating a true image of human life. Dante took great satisfaction in her work on Pride, because he could age; because he was very nearly human. But her work could not be called successful, nor anything more than _slightly_ unflawed.

Because, to create a true human, one must be willing to sacrifice everything for their task. Dante wanted to live. Wanted to be forever young and beautiful. She feared death, and so human transmutation eluded her.

It was nearly seventeen years ago when he—my beloved brother, whom I never had the chance to love—committed a heinous crime against nature. But from that crime I was able to love my sister in his stead. She wasn't human, nor was she a homunculi. But I loved her and for many years, that's all she needed.

But she had something Dante wanted, something Dante needed. True immortality and a body that would never break down, or need to be exchanged. To Dante my perfect sister was indeed just that; perfect. Dante saw opportunity and because of it, our lives were never the same.

Dante was unprepared for our one trump card; the trump card I'd been following for years as he fumbled through the military's ranks. Edward Elric, a boy who could offer my sister the protection she needed, and the one person who could benefit from my sister's vast knowledge of the gate. He knew a lot himself, but I knew he lacked knowledge on the one subject he was desperate to understand.

The creation of a Philosopher's Stone.


	2. Chapter One

**Strangers L****ike Me**

[Chapter One] _Colonel Roy Mustang_

Disclaimer: I make no claims to ownership of Fullmetal Alchemist, nor am I making any profits from the writing of this fan fiction.

**A/N:** Please be aware that I am no FMA expert. And also that I'm basically playing around a lot with the timeline of the anime. Mostly it's based around the time Greed and Dante first make their appearance in the anime, with some stuff mixed in and changed.

* * *

It was a record high for Central and the streets were filled with vendors putting up shades over their tables, and women hurrying to do the shopping, holding umbrellas over their heads and barely taking the time to talk to one another. A girl sat inside a small cafe, looking bored with the city around her.

Her hair was fair and hung in her face even though she'd tied it back that morning before going out. She was very pretty, though the prettiness was put off by the irritated scowl twisting her lips. She flicked a coin back and forth on the table, watching the people walking by through the café window, trying to spot someone.

"Selene," a voice called from behind her and she turned, looking even more annoyed as a girl hurried towards her.

"You're late. An _hour_ late."

The new arrival smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I got caught up at the library."

Selene breathed out through her nose and looked at the waiter who'd been giving her dirty looks for the last hour, figuring she wasn't going to ever order anything. He snapped to attention and hurried over, his eyes on Selene's companion. Selene couldn't blame him for looking; Taya was beyond beautiful and built delicate. People had always been drawn to that fragility and Taya was never without adoring fans.

Selene might have had admirers, had she not been chasing them off whenever they worked up the nerve to come around. She looked up at the waiter and instantly he correctly sensed the hostility in her gaze. While Selene could understand why the man couldn't help but stare at her sister, she _refused_ to allow him. She wasn't about to let some spineless cretin flirt around with the girl; Taya was far too nice and somewhat on the naive side, so she'd probably miss the actual flirtation and take his words at face-value.

"Er," he began nervously, unprepared for Selene's sudden harshness. He'd tried to flirt with her when she'd first come in and she'd brushed him off rudely, but it hadn't been anything like this. "Your orders?"

Taya had barely had time to glance over the menu and she was trying to power through it. Selene smiled at the man, but it could hardly be called a pleasant smile. "I'll have a club sandwich with soup on the side."

He swallowed and quickly scribbled it down on his note pad. "What kind of soup?" He added hurriedly: "ma'am."

"Onion."

Taya finally looked up when the man turned to her, her mind apparently made up. "I'll have a hamburger with salad on the side, please."

The waiter unconsciously relaxed in response to Taya's soothing, slow voice, staring down at her lovely face and grinning idiotically. "How would you like the burger—and would you like anything to drink, ma'am?"

"Cream Soda, please. And I'll have my burger medium-well."

"That'll be out in a few minutes." He took the menu, the stupid look on his face deepening as he turned back towards the kitchen to give their orders over to the chef.

Selene steamed. "Leech."

Taya watched the man walk off, hoping he hadn't heard that, but knowing that he probably had. "Honestly, onee-san, can't you ever be civil?"

"You know that I can't," the blonde said carelessly. "But that's beside the point. What did you find at the library?"

Taya reached around to the bag she'd set beside her chair and drew out a large book. She laid it on the table between them with a small sigh. "Not much. There's hardly anything the humans know about homunculi."

"Don't say that." Selene glared at her sister for a moment before reaching out to lift up the book. "You're a human too."

Taya smiled, but didn't say anything.

"So," the blonde continued, ignoring her sister's silence on the matter. "This is all you could turn up on Homunculi? This is going to be a stretch. It'd be nice if we could just talk to Dante."

Both thought back to their first and last meeting with Dante. They'd been digging a little too deeply into the creation of Homunculi; following the trail their brother had left for them, in search of answers. Digging too deeply meant one thing—coming face to face with what you're searching for.

Envy was everything they'd researched. Violent, inhuman and, above all else_,_ _dangerous_. But Dante was far worse; her eyes were greedy and flat, stones that gave away nothing of how she felt. But Selene knew well enough that Dante had been far too interested in Taya to be healthy. Taya wasn't like Envy.

She was far more human than anything else that'd ever come from within the gate.

But she wasn't…human, if you really got down to it. She was nearly eight years Selene's junior, but already she appeared sixteen at least, when she should be eleven. At first Selene had been terrified her precious sister would die years before she was meant to and then she'd stopped aging. Neither could be sure it would last forever, but Selene was fairly sure that Taya would never age past sixteen—never grow old or die.

Dante had seen this immediately. Taya was too beautiful. Too otherworldly too be natural.

Their visit with the "leader" of the homunculi had ended relatively fast after that, with Selene dragging Taya through the underground sewer lines to escape Envy. Selene had a suspicion that Envy had let them go; he was far faster than them and they never should have out run him. He was also skilled in hand-to-hand combat and with his homunculi gift (neither girl had quite figured out what that was), they _should_ have been easily overpowered and dragged them back to Dante.

It lead Selene to the uneasy feeling that this was all an elaborate scheme to stalk them until the opportune moment—though, admittedly—catching them in the tunnel was as opportune as it got.

So talking to Dante was out of the question. Meaning they'd need to find another source for researching the homunculi. Luckily, that other source was in Central for the time being.

"Yes," Taya agreed on sigh, playing with her hair. "It _would_ be nice to be able to simply ask Dante."

Selene shrugged and closed the book with a snap, lowering it back to the table. She took a sip of the soda she'd ordered while waiting for Taya and winced. While they'd spoke, the ice in her drink had almost completely melted and left the sweet drink heavily watered down.

"It's too damn hot."

Taya smiled. "I like the heat. Though, it'd be nice if I could tie my hair up once in awhile."

The blonde glanced over at her sister, eyeing the girl's long, dark hair. Of course Taya would never be able to wear her hair up in public; her Ouroboros marking would be visible. It rested in the center of her neck and could only be seen when Taya's hair was out of the way. It wasn't the vibrant red tattoo that most of the homunculi sported—instead, it was a raised scar, almost like a burn.

"We'll be leaving for the country again soon. I promise. First I need to figure out a way to talk to Fullmetal. I'm thinking one good, hard whack to the back of his head-"

"Selene!" the brown-haired girl gasped, appalled.

"I was kidding." Selene insisted. "Really."

Taya opened her mouth to respond, but shut it when the waiter rushed over with her soda. "I'm sorry," he breathed, once more enthralled with Taya's lovely face. "We, for some reason, didn't have any clean glasses."

Selene had wondered what that crashing noise from the kitchen had been. She spared the man an amused smirk. In return, he ignored her.

"That's fine," Taya assured him, her musical voice as pleasing as her appearance. "Thank you."

The man nodded. "Your food should be out in just a moment."

Selene waited until the cockroach scuttled away before returning to the subject at hand. "If I can't knock him out, then how are we going to get him to talk to us? I know enough about him through the reports to be aware that he won't respond to a sob story."

"We could always go through his employer," Taya suggested as she took a sip of her soda.

Selene nodded her agreement. "I've heard the Flame Alchemist responds well to females." She noted the look on Taya's face and grinned. "Yeah, that's just a nice way to call him a horn dog."

"Honestly, Selene."

"What? It's true!"

"Either way, lets try the civil, **legal** way first. And that means paying the offices of one Roy Mustang a visit."

__________________

Roy Mustang lived up to his reputation, as far as Selene was concerned. He'd taken one look at Taya and gone into full charm mode and, considering that until Taya had come into the room he'd been a hard ass about giving her information of Fullmetal, it was really, really insulting. But, per as usual, Taya had swept into the room, looking tiny and beautiful and he'd turned into a pile of mush. Or so it appeared. Selene knew that the Flame Alchemist rarely showed his true colors and, while he was flirting readily enough, he wasn't actually giving them any information on Edward Elric.

Tricky man.

Selene wondered if she should tell Roy he was flirting with an eleven year old and then decided against it. Taya wasn't eleven, even if that was her natural age. She appeared sixteen and had the mentality of an adult. Beyond that, Taya was highly uncomfortable talking about the unnaturalness of her existence.

"Is this office secure?"

Roy Mustang paused in his conversation with the younger sister to look at the older, raising two dark eyebrows. "Of course."

"Good." Selene crossed her arms over her ample chest. "Then let's get down to business. I have information that Edward Elric needs. And you have Edward Elric's location."

"Information?"

It was obvious she wasn't getting anything from him unless she pushed a little harder. "I'm sure, sir that you're well aware of Edward Elric being involved in something you shouldn't get yourself mixed up with."

Roy shifted; his dark eyes narrowing as he suddenly gave Selene his full attention. The playful mood he'd adopted was lost and immediately he was every bit the military commander. "You say you have information that you know Fullmetal is interested in, and yet you do not know where Fullmetal actually is?" he tone was vaguely questioning.

"Yes." Taya answered in Selene's stead, her pretty face pulled into a frown. "It's about the hom—"

"Taya," the blonde said hurriedly, glaring at the smaller girl. "What are you doing?"

"I believe that Colonel Mustang already knows much more than he should." She smiled briefly. "And that he would risk his own life to protect his subordinates. He is trust worthy. Beyond that, he is useful."

Mustang didn't look sure that was a compliment.

Selene didn't look convinced with her sister's reasoning, but she dropped it and allowed Taya to continue. "As I was saying; I'm sure you've heard of the homunculi."

"I know precious little about the homunculi," Roy said. "But my attempts to delve deeper into their creation, whereabouts and so on have been, for the most part, thwarted."

Selene sighed. "Not surprising. We've had almost as hard a time, all things considered."

"So what exactly is this information? I'm fairly certain Fullmetal knows enough about the homunculi."

Taya shook her head, fingering the necklace she was wearing. Roy was distracted by it for a moment, recognizing the insignia on the pendant, but not being able to recall what it was.

"He knows about the homunculi. But not about their leader."

"Leader?" the man repeated, urging her on. It was the first time someone was finally giving him _some_ sort of information as to what he was dealing with. Even Maes had kept him in the dark until the very end.

"Dante." Selene hedged, not willing to give out specifics.

Now Roy was frowning, his brows creased in serious thought. He knew the name from somewhere—a woman alchemist, probably in her eighties by now. She'd turned up over the last few hundred years or so a few times, but he'd always figured it was different people assuming the name Dante. But if the woman had something to do with homunculi, it was possible she was the same person…

He waited for her to continue, and spoke when she didn't. "Dante?"

The girl rubbed her forehead, looking much older than her seventeen years. "We've seen her recently, probably getting ready to take that new body of hers." She ignored Roy's shock, not willing to divest the details. The man knew enough as it was. The rest he'd have to unbury on his own. "She's a danger to my family and we'll be needing help."

Roy understood, "Fullmetal?"

"Yes. Edward Elric."

"And in reward for his protection, you'll give him information concerning the homunculi?"

"To an extent." Taya said. "To be precise though, it's information about Dante's work in the past. Mostly her work with a stone he's taken a great interest in."

It could only be the Philosopher's Stone, the man knew. Roy closed his eyes and, when he opened them, he began to root around through his desk drawers. He set a small square of paper down and scribbled an address and a phone number onto it.

"Fullmetal and his brother will be staying there until noon tomorrow. This is all I can give you."

Selene took the paper, and Taya reached out to shake Roy's hand. "This is more than enough. We cannot repay you."

Surprised, Mustang reached out to take her hand. It was small and, when he shook it, freezing cold. For the first time since the girls had entered the room, Roy really looked at the girl, finally noticing the inhuman beauty that went beyond prettiness. There was something weird in her face under the beauty, something unnatural and almost non-human. Her eyes were sad when he finally looked into them, and he knew that she had sensed his slight trepidation in continuing to shake her hand.

"I'm not quite a monster," she murmured quietly, more for him than her sister. "I hope to meet you again some day Colonel Mustang." She released his hand and hurried over to her sister, who was giving Mustang a dirty look, as though he'd done something terrible.

The man watched them leave, clenching his still-cold hand into a fist as he considered. He didn't feel that they were dangerous, but he also couldn't help feeling that he'd just done something terrible.


	3. Chapter Three

**Strangers L****ike Me**

[Chapter Two] _Introductions_

Disclaimer: I make no claims to ownership of Fullmetal Alchemist, nor am I making any profits from the writing of this fan fiction.

**A/N:** I'm pretty sure Edward is supposed to be around fifteen at this point in the anime, but for selfish personal reasons he's being bumped up to seventeen.

______________

Selene chewed on a straw she'd taken with her from the café she and Taya had eaten lunch at, waiting for the boy who'd agreed to meet them in the lobby of the hotel he was staying at. So far Selene was being made to wait for the second time that day. Fullmetal was nearly fifteen minutes late and was starting to look like he would be a no show.

Taya was amusing herself with the book she'd checked out, reading it though it had no information in it that she didn't already know. The blonde watched her sister read for lack of better entertainment, musing over the differences in their appearances. From what she could remember of her parents, they'd both had fair hair like she and her brother. But Taya was nothing like any of them.

For one thing she was pixie-like in build, with a delicate facial structure that didn't at all match the rest of the family. Her hair was thick and hung down her back in waves, the color a dark brown that turned black in the light. Her eyes were as dark as her hair, perhaps even darker.

Selene was almost the exact opposite; her hair was a pale blonde, sometimes seeming almost white. Her eyes were an interesting mix of blue and gray, though more blue than gray. Her nose was long and straight, where as Taya's was small and slightly up-turned at the end. Her lips were full—Taya's thin and as tiny as the rest of her features.

People had never thought them siblings; not one had a person immediately recognized them as siblings, always mistaking them instead for close friends.

Selene never liked to think about the things that had happened in the gate to change the baby who'd gone in. If…If Taya was even the baby her brother had offered up to the gate. Selene frowned at herself, mentally waving the thoughts aside. It didn't matter anymore if Taya wasn't her true sister because she loved Taya.

The years they'd spent together, growing up in a world dominated by being pushed from family member to family member had strengthened their bonds. The only member of their family who'd never taken one look at Taya and her otherworldly appearance and thrown them out was their grandmother, who had passed on that summer. Selene knew Taya was taking the woman's death much harder than anyone else. Their grandmother was the first human besides Selene to show the mostly-human girl true compassion and love, and Taya had adored her ever since.

But even their grandmother had been wary of Taya's growing…_talent_ and urged Selene to stay with her sibling—protect Taya from whatever lay ahead. Selene had never broken a promise to her grandmother, and she didn't plan to start.

Selene looked to the doorway as the sound of metal clanking loudly drew her attention. Coming through the archway and into the hotel lobby was a tall suit of armor and a smaller boy with blonde haired pulled back into a tight pony-tail. The boy she recognized from her research. Edward Elric scanned the room, his eyes stopping on Selene as she stood to meet him.

Selene wasn't very tall, though she seemed to be at least an inch taller than Fullmetal. She stored this fact away for later enjoyment. Selene was almost never taller than people—Taya being one of the acceptations, but she was practically a midget and didn't count—so she was going to enjoy being taller than the boy.

The Fullmetal Alchemist stared at her for a few minutes, seeming to take her in before stepping around and taking a seat on the sofa she'd been sitting on previously. "Alright," he said, motioning for the armor to sit as well. "I'm here. What's the news from Colonel Mustang?"

"You don't seem surprised he sent me."

Edward shrugged nonchalantly. "Weirder stuff has happened."

"In that case, I'll start by saying this: I lied."

"You lied?"

The boy was on guard now, his athletic form shifting into preparation to defend himself should she attack. Instead, Selene merely plopped down beside him and glanced at Taya, who had stopped reading. The girl cleared her throat and waited until Edward looked over to speak.

"We apologize for lying, but we didn't have any other way to make you come. I'm Taya Phisher—Selene is my sister, and we need to speak to you about the homunculi."

The alchemist stiffened his eyes full of distrust. "The homunculi? What do you want to know about them and why?"

Taya set her book on the table and stood, walking the few steps to where Edward half-sat, still ready to bolt. She turned at the last moment and knelt with her back to him, lifting her heavy hair away from her neck. Edward stared at the scar marring her pale skin, turning away with difficulty to look at Selene. Taya dropped her hair instantly.

"Explain," he demanded.

"It's a long story," Selene replied, looking around the hotel. "And this isn't a safe location."

The boy stood before she'd even finished speaking, looking at his own brother before glancing back at Selene. "My room then; I can soundproof it."

The blonde nodded. "Okay."

Both girls followed his brisk pace, keeping close to one another as they filed into the elevator. The armor still had yet to speak, hovering over the mortal boy, his stance protective. Edward thought of something as they waited for the elevator to reach their floor.

"How did you know I was Fullmetal and not think it was Al?"

"I do my homework," she told him, keeping most of her attention on Taya. Taya looked a little uncomfortable, but she was handling it well. Since she'd come out of the gate, Taya had never handled the dark or small, tight spaces very well. As a child she'd had attacks when left alone in her room at night—she and Selene had been sleeping in the same bed because of this for as long as either could remember.

But her breathing sounded easy and un-constricted, so Selene didn't worry overly much. The elevator beeped loudly overhead and lurched to a sudden stop, throwing everyone slightly. Taya went even paler and hurried to get off the elevator. Edward followed with a bemused expression, probably correctly guessing why Taya was looking a little sick to her stomach.

"This way," he told them, turning to the right and stomping towards his room. Al hung back, looking at Taya with obvious worry, though he had no face to express emotions with.

"Don't worry," Taya said to Al, her voice so faint that Selene—nearly ten paces away to keep in step with Edward—could hardly hear her. "Just a little motion sickness; it'll pass.

Al nodded and his helmet creaked with the motion. "If you're sure." He said in his boyish voice that echoed strangely through the empty armor.

Taya shot him a small but brilliant smile, already returning to a more normal pallor. "I fix fast, Alphonse."

"You know my name too?"

"Of course," she replied, tone surprised. "You and Fullmetal are famous, don't you know?"

The boy scratched his metal head, laughing in embarrassment. "Come on." Edward called to them. He had the door to his room open and Selene had already disappeared inside. Both hastened to catch up, Taya ducking through the doorway without hesitation to any traps that may lie beyond. Selene was waiting for them in the tiny lounge area, her eyes on the view to the city road below.

"Alright," the girl said, crossing her legs and waiting for the new arrivals to sit. "How much do you really know about the homunculi, Edward?"

"That they're impossible to kill. They want a philosopher's stone as much as Al and I and not much else."

"I was afraid of that," Selene confessed. "We don't know much ourselves—only what Taya remembers from the gate and the things we've been able to research.

"The gate?" Edward's voice was a whisper. "You remember the gate? Wait—how did you see the gate?"

"I was born in the gate. It is my creator and my death."

Al fidgeted, "I don't understand."

"It's not easy to." Selene told him. "I suppose we should start from the very beginning, though I'm sure you both know enough about human transmutation that I can skip through the gory details."

"Human transmutation?" Edward couldn't keep his eyes off Taya.

"Our mother died giving birth to Taya and, just a few days later, Taya she, er, died too." Selene didn't look at her sister, who was silent and as still as Alphonse in his armor. "It was too much for my brother and I. To lose our beloved mother and precious sister in such a short amount of time. He—my brother—had already been planning to bring back out mother…I'm not sure why he switched to Taya; he probably figured the likelihood of a successful transmutation was higher.

"He offered her body to the gate in return for his own. They took everything."

"Everything?"

Selene nodded grimly. "Yes. Noah gave Taya to the gate in offering, but something went wrong and she didn't come back out—he was bleeding; lost his eyes in the original transmutation. But he couldn't let her go…Noah knew that somewhere inside the gate Taya was now alive."

"So he tried again?" Edward guessed, still staring at Taya, who he was now beginning to realize was probably the first miracle of alchemy.

"Yes. And this time Noah understood why human transmutation fails. When one opens the gate, searching for giving life to the dead, a soul is necessary for the transaction to be successful. Noah knew Taya's body was in the gate now being preserved; waiting for a soul to give it life."

Edward finally looked to Selene and then glanced rapidly to Al. "So...you're saying that human transmutation fails because—"

"Humans fear death about all other things in this world. Their selfish desires to not be alone are what push them to attempt human transmutation. But it always fails for the simple reason that, in the end, their desire to live out weighs the desire to not be alone. They cling to life in that final moment and the gate rejects them."

Selene took Taya's hand into her own and squeezed, smiling encouragingly at her sister. Taya's smile failed as she tried to return it.

"My brother abandoned his life in the pursuit of giving Taya life and because of this, he succeeded."

"Mostly succeeded," Taya argued. "I am not really a human, not really a monster either—just somewhere in between."

"This is all fascinating." Edward said, meaning it. "But I don't understand what this has to do with us. We're not going to try and bring our mother back ever again."

"I'm aware Fullmetal. And that's not actually why we're here." Selene took a large breath, scooting forward and locking eyes with the boy. "I need your help, protection if you will. The homunculi need you alive, probably even fear you and I think you can keep Taya safe because of this."

"The homunculi are targeting her?" somehow he didn't seem overly surprised.

"Dante, more so than the homunculi."

"Dante?" Edward didn't recognize the name, unlike Mustang, who knew the army's history better.

"The leader of the homunculi." The girl waved a hand. "We can discuss this after we have your answer. Taya has information that you might like about the Philosopher's Stone. We'll give it to you in return of a year of protection. One year and we'll give you the answers."

"One year?" the boy said, trying to keep the excitement out of his voice. A year was a long time to wait, but if she could truly give him the answers to finally getting Al his body back...

"One year. That's all we ask of you."

Edward looked at Selene carefully. "Why one year?"

"Dante has to change bodies," Selene explained, sighing as Edward frowned in confusion. No doubt that would need to be explained too. "If we can hold out for a year, she'll be forced to take someone young—and we'll have a few years at least to plan for our next move."

"I'll need more answers than just vague explanations." The alchemist crossed his arms over his chest. "I'll wait for information on the Philosopher's Stone, but I won't wait for information on the homunculi. If I'm going to help you and keep my brother safe than I need to know everything you know."

"Fine." The girl leaned forward, blue eyes dark with some unknown emotion. "Do we have a deal, Fullmetal?"

Edward studied her and sighed. "It's a deal. But stop calling me Fullmetal; I have a name."

Extending a hand out to shake, Selene smirked. "Very well, Edward."

The boy took the offered hand and shook, casting his gaze to Taya. The girl was still obviously uncomfortable with their choice of conversation, but he still needed to understand some things about her, or this arrangement wasn't going to work.

"You're not a homunculi." He said as Selene released his hand. Taya looked up sharply.

"No. I'm not."

"But you're also obviously not really human."

Taya shook her head slowly. "No."

"Can you do alchemy? Or something similar? Envy changes his appearance, Lust's fingers turn into spikes." He demonstrated by flexing his fingers out sharply.

"Neither," she confessed. "I've never been able to do alchemy, and I don't think I have any weird powers."

Selene looked away very suddenly, paling slightly. Edward followed the movement, but didn't remark on it. He still wasn't sure this was a good idea. He had no way of knowing if these girls were telling him the truth. This could all be a trap and he was walking Al into danger. But he didn't have any other options. After the fire Scar caused at the library, it wasn't going to be easy finding research material.

He needed their story to be real. He _needed_ Taya to remember the gate. If she couldn't defend herself whatsoever, it was going to make keeping her safe that much harder. He glanced at Selene.

"Can you do alchemy?"

"Somewhat," Selene told him. "I need special arrays and they take time to draw, so it's more of a nuisance than an actual gift."

"Very well." Edward licked his lips, planning out his next move. He and Al still needed Sheska to finish putting together Marcoh's notes before they could decide what to do. "We're going to stay in town for awhile, until we find out next lead. You might have information on the Philosopher's Stone, but I'm going to continue my search."

_Incase you're lying_. He didn't say it, but everyone could feel it implied.

"That's fine. We'll stay here until you're ready to travel again—I'll go set up a room for us."

Edward nodded. "I'm going to head back to the base to talk to someone. Are you coming Al?"

The armor nodded. "Of course, brother."

Selene smiled slightly at the boys, though it was tense and strained. Both parties in this agreement were relying heavily on their instincts and the need to trust one another, so it was to be a strained relation. "We'll see you boys later, then." The blonde girl finally said, motioning for Taya to follow her out.

"It was nice to meet you." Al said politely. He turned his empty helmet to Taya and inclined his head forward. She bowed deeply in reply and, when she straightened, her beautiful face was strained.

Selene tugged gently on her sister's arm. "Come on Taya. Let's go."

The brothers watched them leave, Alphonse waiting until the door had clicked shut to look down at Edward. "Is this wise, brother?"

"I'm not sure, Al," he sighed. "But I really hope so."


End file.
